Health seeking behaviour during COVID-19 pandemic among general population in urban areas of Chengalpattu District

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic has severely impaired the essential services delivery like elective care, outpatient services besides the lockdown, financial constraints led to decreased utilization of health services. India being the most affected country. Assessing the changes in health seeking behavior and recommending the necessary changes in the health care utilization during COVID 19 outbreak is very important. Hence the current study aims to assess the health seeking behavior and its associated factors among Urban adults in Chengalpattu district during COVID 19 Pandemic. Methodology: A Community based Cross Sectional study was carried out among adults of age group (19 yrs. and above) in field practicing area of urban health training center from October 2020 to December 2020. After obtaining written informed consent data was collected by house to house hold survey using semi-structured pre-tested questionnaire and information like socio demographic variables and health seeking behavior were obtained. Statistical analysis software Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), v21.0 was used for the analysis of data. Results: Among 126 participants during covid-19 pandemic 33.3% preferred private healthcare facilities for their first step of treatment,,,